As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:
And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.
And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.
But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.
¶ And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil.
And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things, before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:
And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the priest's, so is the trespass offering: it is most holy:
And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:
And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the LORD:
And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering:
And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed: and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD.
And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering:
And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar: and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
¶ And if he be poor, and cannot get so much; then he shall take one lamb for a trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and one tenth deal of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering, and a log of oil;
And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:
And the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the trespass offering:
And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before the LORD.
Even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with the meat offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the LORD.
When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession;
Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house:
And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall;
And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place:
And if the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, and after it is plaistered;
And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the morter of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.
And if the priest shall come in, and look upon it, and, behold, the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house was plaistered: then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed.
And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:
And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet:
To teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy.
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Leviticus 14
Verse 2
the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing — The rite is for one already healed (v.3), not a cure; ‘cleansing’ (tohorah) is the word of the purification. Christ applied it to the cleansed: ‘shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them’ (Matt 8:4).
Verse 3
go forth out of the camp — The leper still lives outside (Lev 13:46), so the priest goes to him. ‘Healed’ is rapha, the verb of Ex 15:26, ‘I am the LORD that healeth thee’. The priest looks and confirms; the healing comes before the rite. The ten of Luke 17:14 were cleansed ‘as they went’ to the priests.
Verse 4
cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop — The same three are cast ‘into the midst of the burning of the heifer’ in Num 19:6. ‘Scarlet’ here is two words, shani and tola’ath, the crimson worm. Hyssop is the plant of the Passover blood (Ex 12:22), and David prays, ‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean’ (Ps 51:7).
Verse 6
dip them and the living bird in the blood — The living bird, taken with the cedar, scarlet and hyssop, is dipped in the blood of the bird killed ‘over the running water’; the Hebrew for ‘running’ is chai, living, the same word as ‘alive’. Verse 7 sprinkles the leper seven times and lets the living bird ‘loose into the open field’.
Verse 8
wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair — He washes, shaves and bathes before returning to the camp, much as the Levites were cleansed: ‘let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes’ (Num 8:7). He still stays ‘abroad out of his tent seven days’, and on the seventh day shaves and washes again (v.9).
Verse 10
on the eighth day — The offerings come on the eighth day: two he lambs, one ewe lamb, three tenth deals of flour and ‘one log of oil’. The log is a small liquid measure, named only in this chapter. The eighth day also marks the priests’ first service (Lev 9:1) and a son’s circumcision (Lev 12:3).
Verse 12
one he lamb… for a trespass offering — The first sacrifice is the trespass offering (asham, as in Lev 7:1), waved with the log of oil ‘before the LORD’ (tenuphah), as the ram of consecration was (Ex 29:24). Its law is that of Lev 7: ‘as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering’ (v.13).
Verse 14
the tip of the right ear… thumb… great toe — The blood falls on the same three places as at the consecration of Aaron and his sons: ‘the tip of the right ear … the thumb of their right hand, and … the great toe of their right foot’ (Ex 29:20; Lev 8:23–24). The cleansed man is marked as the priests were.
Verse 17
upon the blood of the trespass offering — The oil goes on the same three places, over the blood, so the order is blood first and oil after. The oil is taken from the log poured into the priest’s left palm and sprinkled seven times before the LORD (vv.15–16); what remains is poured on the head of the one cleansed (v.18).
Verse 21
if he be poor — Dal, poor, and ‘cannot get so much’ is, in the Hebrew, that his hand cannot reach it. He brings one lamb for the trespass offering, one tenth deal of flour, and a log of oil, and two turtledoves or young pigeons for the sin and burnt offerings (v.22). Lev 5:7 and 12:8 make the same provision.
Verse 32
whose hand is not able to get — The verb nasag, to reach, is the same as in v.21 and in vv.22, 30–31 (‘such as he is able to get’, v.22). The summary shows that the poor man’s offering is as full a law as the other: with it, ‘the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the LORD’ (v.31).
Verse 33
unto Moses and unto Aaron — A new address to both brothers, as in Lev 13:1, opens the law of leprosy in houses (vv.34–53). The first address introduced the law for persons and garments; this one takes it into the dwellings of the promised land.
Verse 34
the land of Canaan, which I give to you — The law is spoken before Israel enters, and holds only ‘in a house of the land of your possession’. The gift is the one made to Abraham: ‘all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession’ (Gen 17:8). In this case the LORD says of the plague, ‘I put’ it.
Verse 36
empty the house — The priest has the house emptied before he looks, ‘that all that is in the house be not made unclean’. Only then does he go in ‘to see the house’. If he finds the plague ‘greenish or reddish’ in the walls (v.37), he shuts up the house seven days (v.38) and returns on the seventh (v.39).
Verse 45
break down the house — After the stones are taken out, the house scraped and plastered (vv.40–43), a plague that breaks out again is ‘a fretting leprosy’ (v.44, the word of Lev 13:52). Then the house is pulled down, and its stones, timber and mortar are carried ‘out of the city into an unclean place’.
Verse 53
let go the living bird — The rite of vv.4–7 is repeated for a cleansed house (vv.49–52): the same two birds, cedar, scarlet and hyssop, and the blood and running water, sprinkled seven times. The living bird goes ‘out of the city into the open fields’, as the leper’s bird did, and ‘atonement’ (kaphar) is made for the house.
Verse 57
To teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean — Yarah, to teach, is the root of torah, ‘law’, which ends the verse. The purpose clause echoes Lev 10:10–11, where the priests are to ‘put difference between holy and unholy’ and teach Israel. Ezek 44:23 repeats it: ‘they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane’.
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